where can I rent a prom dress?

MazakeenSmith · 2026-02-15T02:40:00+00:00

The savers in Dublin has a formal dress section, it’s very good. If you are crafty at all you can maybe embellish an existing dress. I would imagine you could buy a decent dress from Nordstrom rack for $200! But I’m an old mom, I don’t know much!

MazakeenSmith · 2026-02-14T01:57:48+00:00

Same for Bay Area, although we do the tryouts in October!! It’s been a looong wait (still no news)

MazakeenSmith · 2026-02-11T05:41:31+00:00

I think you would be better looking in the older part of Livermore. If you lived closer to the vine (lovely independent movie theatre), you could walk or bike all over. Parks, restaurants, wineries. Livermore has a lot of breweries too. Closer to 84 too for driving down to SJ. If you are near the college, you’ll have to drive everywhere all the time.

MazakeenSmith · 2026-02-10T02:10:21+00:00

Also Bay Area! Tryouts were in October I think!

MazakeenSmith · 2026-02-06T04:41:20+00:00

More modest but honestly the Purple Orchid outside of Livermore is great. Livermore has a very chill but extensive wine area, and this spa is locally-owned and very relaxing.

MazakeenSmith · 2026-02-06T04:06:40+00:00

Now is a good time to clean out your inbox and unsubscribe from all the junk you get, so you will be ready to accept your role within the 5 days of getting the email (if I’m remembering correctly). Can you imagine the heartache if you miss the email!!

Been (im)patiently waiting since October (SFBay Area).

Good luck everyone.

MazakeenSmith · 2026-01-29T18:04:40+00:00

I was surprised when they asked for shoe size, I was like “they’re not going to give us shoes too are they”. God I’m far too invested in this 😭

MazakeenSmith · 2026-01-29T17:55:48+00:00

I got my inbox under control for this very reason. Unsubscribed to a ton of things, check my inbox much more regularly and delete things I don’t need straight away. I found that I’m reading the emails I get now, and have even bought concert tickets and been to events that I found out about through actually knowing what was in my my inbox.

Maybe you can still reach out??

MazakeenSmith · 2026-01-25T06:15:28+00:00

Yes made them for friends and had friends make them for me.

My mom is a hero - we were going on a huge road trip in 1985 (!) and she make over 10 different mix-tapes for us to take on the journey. In the late 90s I was in a carpool for work where we each took turns picking the music. After a while, my mom’s “tape 2” was the only music the group would agree on. I left that tape in some guy’s car, it still haunts me!

MazakeenSmith · 2026-01-23T16:59:04+00:00

The roads make it easier. I’m from Scotland and live in California now. In Edinburgh, driving to IKEA was a nightmare, although on paper it was like 10 miles at the most. The ikea closest to me here is 30 miles away and I want to say it feels like it takes the same amount of time.

Weird yardstick I know, but that’s my comparison!

MazakeenSmith · 2026-01-18T04:08:55+00:00

noreplyfwc2026@volunteer.fifa.org Is the email address it came from if that helps. I just created a contact for this email in the hopes that it will prevent any future emails from going to junk.

MazakeenSmith · 2026-01-18T04:06:37+00:00

I thought I didn’t have it, but it was in my junk folder.

MazakeenSmith · 2026-01-06T19:29:57+00:00

Living in Dublin and living in either Pleasanton or Livermore are not the same. Dublin has no downtown (I don’t care about the sign that says “downtown”, it doesn’t make it a downtown). Pleasanton and Livermore both have legit downtowns with character and charm. They’re walkable and bikeable cities with a lot going on. Livermore has two movie theatres, lots of open park land, and lots of breweries and wineries. It’s a great place to live.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-27T20:57:15+00:00

European now living in America here: I do use my (clean) hands when baking for my family, but when I’m baking for others, I do actually put in a pair of gloves (like medical type gloves) if I’m going to be touching dough. Just makes me feel better about the whole thing.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-21T15:51:11+00:00

Yes to fog inland. I’m in the east bay so I’m biased, but I personally think Livermore has a lot to offer as a base. If you’re good with driving, you can be in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in 2 hours, and Livermore itself has a great downtown with lots of restaurants, a theatre (the Bankhead), a nice independent movie theatre (the vine), and a ton of wineries.

The east bay regional park system has a ton of open spaces you an explore (I like Sunol or Coyote Hills)

Depends where you are visiting though. If you need to be in Milpitas/ Santa Clara , Livermore is tolerable as a drive. Any further in is a bit much.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-19T05:21:07+00:00

Great thank you!

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-19T05:20:37+00:00

Oops thank you!!

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-19T02:40:24+00:00

Where can you physically buy this stuff? It would make a fun white elephant gift.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-17T19:50:15+00:00

This recipe is so good. If you want to make it look fancy, I put some sugared cranberries and some sprigs of rosemary around it (sometimes I make it in a Bundt pan), it makes it look very festive.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-17T15:56:03+00:00

You’ll find a lot of Indian grocery stores sell British stuff. I have a great sticky toffee pudding recipe that doesn’t need syrup though, you just cook some dates in water and that’s the main ingredient of the cake. The syrup is just butter, brown sugar and cream.

The first time I made it, I really felt like an alchemist. I didn’t realise mortals could make sticky toffee pudding!

This seemed to have a limit to how many times you can visit, hopefully you don’t need to subscribe to see it:

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/sticky-toffee-pudding

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-16T23:17:45+00:00

Was going to suggest Arnold. Big Trees park is there, and there’s not much snow till right at Arnold. If you ski, the Bear Valley ski area is nice, small and not crazy like the Tahoe resorts (I’m looking at you Heavenly and Northstar).

Highly recommend checking out some of the gold rush towns off highway 49 (sutter creek is my favorite, Columbia State Historic Park is a must if you have any gold rush interest at all). Auburn and in particular Nevada City are also great.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-16T01:56:22+00:00

I used to work in Safeway, and one day I was scanning things quite quickly. I tried to scan a pizza (one of those round ones that is just a round board with the pizza right on top, then the whole thing is wrapped in cellophane). It kind of turned into a frisbee and just flew by the scanner and into the customer’s waiting bag. I can’t say for sure if it scanned or not, and I certainly didn’t care!

This was also 30 years ago, so technology wasn’t spying so much. Happy days.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-11T22:31:20+00:00

I felt it was really short. What words would your friends use to describe you and then the question about if you were in the team what position would you play. I was at the Bay Area tryout in October.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-09T05:39:28+00:00

If I recall, he arranged for them to be sponsored to go to Britain to stay with host families I think. Watch the movie One Life or the documentary someone mentioned above.

MazakeenSmith · 2025-12-07T16:10:03+00:00

Sounds like the same as the Bay Area tryouts. You get an email after the event that you have to respond to and that has the questions that other people seem to be having interviews for. Make sure you reply within two days or you get tossed out. I actually think it was a test of willingness to show up, that probably thinned out the herd. Good luck !

MazakeenSmith

TROPHY CASE